


Superior: Nova

by draconicPenartastic



Category: Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: And Kori's godlike look, Angst, Everyone Has Issues, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Injury Recovery, Jason's flirt, Kori is evil, M/M, Roy is helpless in the face of the beauty, Tags May Change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-12
Updated: 2017-10-12
Packaged: 2019-01-16 15:15:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12345231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/draconicPenartastic/pseuds/draconicPenartastic
Summary: Roy Harper, also known by some as Arsenal, tries and fails to take on the infamous duo known as the Outlaws.While he's recovering with no chance of escape, the duo tries to do something atrocious. Befriend him.





	Superior: Nova

The moonless night made warehouse both dark and cold. No one in their right mind would come here at such time, when the slightest touch of metal walls made skin freeze. Not even rats lived in places like this. But well. This is Gotham.  
“-6 busted cars, and all the cargo. We had moved 2 labs after our men told us which information the Bat took from them, though the biggest one still got taken by the GCPD-“ Read a man standing behind his boss.  
In Gotham on nights such like this crime Lords and Ladies gathered in warehouses as cold as this one to meet, plan and trade. It is not often that a such a big meeting happened. The fear of the bat and general dislike for each other meant that having such meets more often would end up in blood and high bullet bills.  
Now that they gathered, they sat together at a round table in the light of lamps, heating the place with their strong light.  
Lords of Crime discussing future of their Kingdom. There was no trust between them, but a common enemy that needs to be slayed. So they gathered, to plan.  
“Enough!” Screamed one of them, a bald male clad in a grey suit under his jacket. His features were twisted in anger, fury. There was a loud sound as his fist hit the table and resonated through the furniture. “The Bat is at us again, now that Joker is in Arkham! Again!”  
And to complain about certain bat themed heroes.  
“Not just that” said another “his brats are back in town as well. They are equally bothersome and expensive. Especially the pretty one, however he calls himself now. Batwing?”  
“Nightwing, sir.”  
„Whatever. He and the rabid robin took down more of my men than the rest combined. Me best lieutenant landed up in bed for months!”  
“Sir, the staff said that Ms. Mercedes might never wake up.”  
“She better wake up. It's always hell to find good people.”  
Another Lord of Crime looked up and spoke. This one in leather jacket, black as charcoal. “Yeah, yeah, the bat is upon us. So what? He was upon us from the start. How many years was it already? 15? And yet we are still here!”  
“‘So what?’ Just wait Jessie. Maybe your business is still kicking, but they will get to you eventually! We will see how you will talk then, when you lay in a cell, with no one to bail you!” Paul pointed at Jessie before his hand struck down. Another punch hit the table. “We are losing money here! Because of this fucking Bat, our businesses are going down. So if you aren’t going to cooperate then at least-”  
“You aren’t losing money because of heroes. You are losing money because you are weak.” Said the calmest voice in the warehouse. “Money as well as Power.” Everyone looked up, at the dark corner it came from, henchmen instinctively raising their weapons at the spot.  
“Who the fuck are you?!” Asked Jessie, his men ready to shoot at a command. The crime Lord fast regretted his words as the figure became illuminated by light. The light was like that of a star, the figure bathing in it, short of a deity.  
Just one look at the woman was enough for Jessie to start shaking with fear. Not the normal fear of the Bat, that meant few months in a hospital before his contacts got him out. This was something worse. Much worse. The gorgeous woman before them meant chaos and death and pain. He has only heard rumours, as she, like a Goddess, only showed before ones she had chosen to fulfill her will, or to punish ones who crossed her. If she was merciful, the death would be quick. Otherwise… Jessie started shaking even more, remembering all the stories he has heard.  
“Supernova”, said someone, the shock, like a spell, breaking from humans. The henchmen lowered their weapons, fast. The bosses looked at her, sweat trailing down their temples, trying to hide their fear.  
The dark skinned being floated down from the corner, her red hair trailing behind, illuminating everything around like the sheer essence of the stars. She was clad in a purple suit that showed the perfection of her body. Perfection no human could ever hope to achieve.  
Supernova looked down at them, her eyes green as kryptonite and so much more deadly. “So you know who I am. Good. It will spare me some time.” She smiled, it being more that of satisfaction than happiness. “Now then,” she clasped her hands together “let us go through the important points meeting.” The Goddess's voice cut through the silence. It rippled like a wave, washing over, before the silence came back. No one dared to speak up, to interrupt.  
“You all are trapped, between batman and black mask. They both advance faster than you fools can or are willing to react. You had years to take out either, but instead you just sat and let them take more and more from you.” She spread her arms, palms up “Your chance is long gone. Now you all are working for me. Obey and you will be rewarded. Cross me and you will be wishing for death when the bat will lie down at my feet.” Her smile broadened. “Gotham will be ours before end of the year.” She let the words sink into their heads as they looked at each other, many emotions and thoughts passing in between them.  
“What about Red Hood?” Asked a small voice, voicing the question they all had. “He will kill us if he finds out.”  
“There is no need to worry about him,” she answered “Red Hood is working for me.” The Court looked between each other, failing at discrecy, a single thought shared by them all ‘Shit’. “You are to follow his orders as well as mine.”  
“You all will be contacted with instructions shortly,” She turned around “Meanwhile, this meeting has not happened. If I hear even a rumour, I will find the responsible.” With that, she left, rising into the darkness.  
There was silence for some time as the Court of Crime made sure that their new Goddess left.  
“The bitch is fucking terrifying” Breathed Jessie.

===Line Break===

Koriand’r left the warehouse clad in a black cloak that hid her alien features. No matter how many strings were pulled to clear this area from any sentient life, it’s better to be safe than sorry for unwanted attention that will end up in additional cleaning. “Red would surely enjoy the cleaning, driving around and taking out the trash.” She smiled at the thought of him.  
The cloak would also hide her from the rain when the Gotham sky decided to let go of every single drop and rain for days or even weeks. Nova looked up at the sky. Not that she could see much in between the roofs, so close to each other, they sometimes seemed to move, closing over pedestrians. The small belt of sky was dark grey instead of the cosmic black, illuminated by lights of the city, hiding even the brightest stars behind clouds and pollution. One could say that the night sky showed the true nature of its city.  
Closing to the exit from the alley, Kory reached into her pocket, to take out a small device. It was metallic, with a red red button. She pressed it. And waited.

 

There was a tap-tap of feet on pavement, closing onto her. Not a pattern that seemed familiar. There was though sound of an engine so-  
BAM clink  
Supernova straightened before she looked at the bullet rolling at her feet, the metallic glint barely visible in the dark alley. Her eyes found the shooter. A big bald man with a handgun shaking slightly between his hands, as his victim turned around instead of falling down, dead. The Goddess smiled cruelly at him, her hands alight in purple energy, illuminating the dark alley. A single pair of brown eyes gouged out in terror as he got her full attention. There was a Crack of energy and the shooter was flying back, away from the circle of light and the Goddess’ extended hand. It came to a stop with a dull Thud, it’s legs still visible. She turned around, extinguishing her bolts, darkness swallowing both the body and growing pool of liquid around it.  
“I’m afraid you will have to do the kind of cleaning you find ‘unfun’.”  
Red Hood didn’t stopped walking, “Nothing like having your own personal clean-up squad, right?” He hauled the body up, red dripping on his black jacket. “If I got a dollar for every body that I had to haul, I could probably pay for someone's college.” Kori smiled at him, “Your experience in the cleaning area is appreciated my friend.” “Streets of Gotham sure teach a lot of useful skills. Like how to steal and hide bodies. Other skills like math and reading are of course unnecessary. Why would anyone need them?” sarcasm seeping in his words, Red Hood turned to Supernova, nodding towards the exit of the alley. “Let us go. I can’t guarantee that someone won’t hijack our transport, and then there will be either more corpses or some citizen will unhappily find their car at the bottom of the bay. Corpses are both more probable and satisfying.” They moved out of the alley, to a beaten, rusty silver car. Or rather grey. It might have been silver once, when it got out of a factory, before it was screwed up by the world it was created in and sent to a place where it could be turned into parts before someone would say ‘I can karate and ninAAAAGH’. Could explain why Red Hood found such a bond with it.  
“I see you took Wendy today.” She said, voice disturbed by the THUd of a corpse being thrown into the trunk.  
“Yes,” he answered, gloved hands wiping off the fresh blood on a towel he took out from somewhere. “Last time I took Celty. Can’t discriminate. They all need time and care and joyrides.”  
They sat into the car, tinted glass hiding them from the world outside. In the relative safety of her own skin and the dark windows, she took of the hood. Koriand’r, the Princess of Tamarean didn’t liked to hide, even if it was necessary.  
The engine roared to life, the whole vehicle accelerating forward, as Jason released it’s power with one violent push of his foot. Jason didn’t need to take off his helmet for Kori to know that he was smiling like a madman, enjoying the sound, the speed, the company. He might even start laughing if they suddenly got attacked and got out, riding so fast they posed more danger to themselves than the attackers. ‘It’s the adrenaline Kori.’ Jason tried to explain it to her once. ‘It’s released when humans pull dangerous and deadly stunts. Some people like the feeling so much, they seek out danger. We call it ‘Adrenaline High’.’ According to Jason this ‘adrenaline high’ is why superhero community exists in the first place.  
“How is our guest Jason?” She broke the comfortable silence, unfazed by another sharp turn, sure to leave tire marks on the asphalt. Jason flipped a switch on the dashboard, not looking away from the road. A feed from camera started projecting on the glass in front of her. “Another effect of insomnia and his sheer love for Wendy” she assumed.  
“Still asleep.I made sure of it.” True to his words, their guest was very asleep. It was a good thing, as according to the her knowledge on humans (as confirmed by Jason), their specie healed and regenerated faster when asleep. Something about body not having to prioritise other functions. And X’hal knew that he needed it, if all the alien medical equipment he was connected to was any clue.  
Kori nodded “Good” She watched a little longer before flipping the switch, feed cutting off. More sharp turns, more rubber grated off.  
“Was your ‘stake out’ successful?”  
“Oh yes! This time I visited the right people. It still surprises me how much a good reputation, and a loaded gun can help with shopping. In a few days I will have to visit them again to get the new parts for the girls. Or threaten some more. I hate slow reception, especially when I got relatively good ideas for them.”  
“What kind of ideas and upgrades made you so excited?”  
“Well, for first I was thinking about putting a giant laser pointer on the back so I can blind whoever is chasing me. Then I came to conclusion that I don’t want to have an army of angry cats following me. Dogs, we could hire someone to train and make an army out of them. No one would expect that. But cats? That would be impossible.”  
“Don’t act like you would not try to keep them.”  
“They would hypnotize me and make me do stuff like feeding and petting them after being violently woken up. Can’t let such dangerous creatures roam our place.”  
“These cat beasts always seem to be attracted to you.”  
“Probably can smell the death on me.”

===Line break----

The sensations came one after another. Softness on his skin. Lightness of lying down. Dry cotton in his mouth. Killing headache. Scratch it. Killing everywhereache. Killing everywhereache, especially on his cheek, right arm and leg, And this annoying beep beep Beep Beep BEEP.  
The man opened his eyes. Then blinked. Again. Nope, still dark and blurry. He closed them, inhaled and tried to remember how co-  
Your name is ROY HARPER. A former SUPERHERO turned MERCENARY. You have NO IDEA where you are, why are you STILL ALIVE. Last thing you remember is FIGHTING WITH THE OUTLAWS, a duo of very skilled and dangerous CRIMINALS.  
Ah yes. He was probably rescued by someone. A friend? Or some bad guy who finds him more useful alive?  
...  
Who is he kidding. With his luck it was surely the second thing. Someone kidnapped him to torture him slowly, or to get revenge, or some information that he won’t have. Roy groaned, pulling against something inside his hands, as he raised them to cover his face, as he imagined all the possible scenarios. All of them ended in his death or disfigurement. So who is it? Competition? Someone who was pissed by his existence? Someone having a thing for redheads? “Anyway, it’s better to get these things out”, he decided, grasping to pull out the thin tubes in his arms.  
...  
…”What?” Came to mind as instead he hoisted himself up and looked around, feeling of disbelief filling him, pushing away the pain from moving his leg. It was dark, the only lighting being a couple of small lights in the ceiling, and light from outside. Even in the weak light the room didn’t looked like a criminal's dungeon or a hospital room, or house of anyone who cared about him (because there are no people like this). It looked more like an hotel room. He let go of the tubes and focused on the interior.  
The room was… spacious. And pretty barren, with only the basic furniture. The redhead recognised a desk and a chair on the wall opposite of the bed, right under a pair of light, with the wardrobe on the left. On the right was an entrance. Probably closed. Around the bed there was all the medical machinery he was connected to, giving a weak glow of whatever was inserted into him and multiple graphs and numbers, like his stable pulse (Beep, Beep, Beep). The walls were a combination of grey and darker grey. So the situation didn’t looked so dire. Especially combined with the sight outside GIANT WINDOWS on the left wall. There were three of them, all higher than Roy himself. All showing the same thing. A city covered in lights and life.  
...Maybe this time he got taken by someone nice. Or at least okay with leaving all the body parts in place.

The doors opened, letting someone in. Click. The light turned on, making Roy squint and hiss.  
“Oh good, you're not asleep anymore.”  
Roy turned his head, squinting at the newcomer. He couldn’t see details with his eyes adjusting.  
“Hello Roy. My name is Jason. I’ve been taking care of you for the last few days so you would not die. Can I sit here with you?”  
The voice was that of a guy, very nice and soothing. Roy nodded slowly as the guy- Jason, sat at the edge of the bed, flipping through a clipboard he took out from under his arm. Neither said anything as Roy’s eyes made their blinking party, til he could keep them open for more than half a second. Finally, he looked at the person. Then blinked. And blinked again. It really was a guy. Very tall, with nicely tanned skin, broad shoulders and hair black as the purest coffee, with a poof of milk white hair between his eyes. He was wearing a dark brown T-shirt and a pair of dark blue jeans that showed off his defined abs and thighs. “He could probably crush my skull between them.”  
“So, how are you feeling Roy?” Jason asked, smiling kindly, if not a bit mischievous, his defined cheeks pronounced by it. His eyebrows were bend questioningly, highlighting his beautiful green eyes. Roy blinked. Then felt heat on his cheeks. “Oh no. He’s hot”, his genius brain supplied.  
“Uuuuh...” 

“So,” Jason took his clipboard, clicked the pen and wrote “severe brain damage and inability to speak cohere-” “Oi!” The cry came out from Roy, blush deepening with embarrassment. Calloused hand covered Jason’s mouth in a fake expression of surprise, “You healed!” he gasped dramatically. Exasperation filled Roy, which showed on his face.  
“Great. Not only I was kidnapped, but I was kidnapped by a jerk.”  
“A handsome jerk mind you.” Pointed out Jason happily.  
“Modesty isn’t your thing, is it?”  
“I have enough modesty to not join a beauty contest and crush all opponents under my heels.” Jason raised and waved the clipboard. “All facts aside, I came here to check on you. And now that you have finally woken up, I want to check out if your brain didn’t turn into some brain flavored jam.”  
Roy looked ready to object as Jason raised the piece of fake wood, his pen ready to write.  
“First, how are you feeling Roy?”  
“As good as a guy who was apparently beaten to a coma and has no idea where he is can. While we’re at it, not to complain about service or anything, but where the hell am I? And how long was I asleep?”  
“Roy, dude, you were in a very bad shape. Broken leg, second degree burns all over, and so many bruises on you that I could teach kids more colours than by visiting an art gallery.” Jason paused, taking in the apprehension very well shown on the redheads face. A sigh escaped him, as he continued. “You were asleep for nearly a week. Me and my friend decided to do a good deed for the year, and payed for your impressive medical bill. You’re welcome by the way.”  
Roy stared at his supposed saviour's’ face, eyebrows raised. It all sounded so...  
“Really? Just because? Sounds rather fishy.”  
“Don’t believe in the good of heart?”  
He remembered Oliver.  
“There always is some other reason.”  
“You’re right, there is one” Jason flashed a brilliant smile “Personal rule. I don’t let strays bleed out on the ground.”  
A memory pushed on Roy, trying to kick down the door and enter the memory lane, to help with the confusion and this feeling of similarity. It was kicking at Roy, screaming to look past just his face, because it seems so familiar.  
Roy focused on the black haired guy, looking past the handsome features and a smile that would put people on the ground like a biological weapon. Never mind that! his brain reminded, leaving Roy to force his eyes below, on the lean, muscular body and calloused hands that would send any douche crying in jealousy and then pain after they got their assess handed to them.  
It took a second before he realised that Jason's arms and hands were covered in scars. Dozens of scars of varying length, thickness and color.  
“Dude, you’re telling me about my health, but what the hell-”  
“Jason?” An awfully familiar voice rang from the corridor, stopping any more words from coming. Roy felt blood leaving his face, past the regular levels, and hiding deeper within his body, as a familiar redhead came through the door. “Fuck you” he wished to his blood, mentally flipping it off. He would gladly be hidden somewhere else than less than a leap away from a woman whose smile would be the reason both men and women would jump into fire.  
“Fuck.” Whispered Roy as the Supernova looked at him with such smile.

**Author's Note:**

> Isnpired by this beautiful picture  
> https://careamorran.tumblr.com/post/165190385898/everyone-knows-not-to-mess-with-the-outlaws  
> Thank you for letting me to write this thing friend <3


End file.
